Penny Young Nance of the anti-feminist Concerned Women For American opines over at Fox News about the so-called "Peter Pan" syndrome of the Modern American Man-Boy:
"...[A]re women contributing to the demise of the man? Feminism has been detrimental to the identity of the American male. Men have been rebuked if they pull out a chair or open a door for a woman. If they offer to pay for dinner (which they should), their date may be offended and demand to split the check because she can pay her own way. -- Ladies, it’s not such a bad thing to be treated to dinner unless that meal comes with sexual expectations, which is another column."
And really, why write that column when there are women and feminists to blame for shit? She continues:
Yes, men should man up, take on the responsibilities of an adult, get a job, have a family and be a contributing member to society. The benefits to being a married man are huge. According to Men’s Health magazine, married men make more money, have more sex, get promoted faster, and are generally healthier than unmarried men.
But women also need to let men be men. Men don’t have to linger between college and well, college, forever. They can make choices to take control of their lives and be the men they are called to be if they just put down the game controls and choose a better direction. Sadly, at the moment, American women are apparently still in need of a few good men."
Misandry: Nance suggests that men are incapable of turning into grown-ups unless women let men be chivalrous. This is hateful toward men because many men are actually capable of becoming and being adults even if women do not pretend they cannot open their own doors or pay for their own meals. Many men have egos that can take such slights. Really. Indeed, I would argue that the man who insists that he can only "grow up" if women pretend to be weak is and dependent is the man who has a lot of emotional maturing left to do.
Misogyny: Despite the fact that millions of women "take on the responsibilities of an adult, get a job, have a family and be a contributing member to society" (and apparently are better at doing so than men, if current Man Crisis narratives are to be believed), Nance refers to these activities as "man[ning] up." This is hateful toward women because it conflates full adulthood with manhood, thereby defining women out of adulthood.
Notice too how Nance's view on gender roles encourages artifice, rather than sincerity, in human interaction. Rather than letting each individual person decide how they want to interact with other humans, Nance divides the world into two halves and encourages gender role indoctrination: Women must learn to better display inauthentic weakness and men must learn to expect it from women.
Although feminism can help address such nonsensical, sexist, and hateful views, Nance's Bash-All-Things-Feminist agenda counter-productively leads her readers away from feminism. Well played, gender essentialists. Well played.
Related: Anti-Feminists Condemn Feminists For Condemning Maher's Sexism
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